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Recently I have noticed that have been some issues/arguments going on in the mathematics chat room between certain users. Sometimes the arguments get overboard and become personal, some of the things some users say IMO are extremely rude. Now some user flagged some of these messages for moderator attention and I was told that all moderators across the SE community are notified immediately.

I was in the chat room at that time and the moderator that came by said that we should not unnecessarily flag messages for moderator attention unless they are serious. IMO personal arguments in the chat room are serious. In the event of personal spats happening do you think it warrants one to flag these messages for moderator attention?

Also should users be warned not to have such arguments in the chat room? Also nowhere in the meta thread on chat rules is there anything mentioned on avoiding personal spats. What do you guys think?

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My point of view: it depends on how "serious" things get. Racial slurs, profanities, sure. Behaviour that is like online bullying? Please flag. But just people being impolite (albeit personally) to each other? Perhaps not.

Users are adults (well, okay, at least 13 years old). They should be able to better handle themselves without constant "adult intervention".

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    $\begingroup$ Willie: Should presumably being the operative word in your last sentence. :) $\endgroup$
    – cardinal
    Commented May 2, 2012 at 14:55
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    $\begingroup$ @WillieWong The thing is some racial slurs have allegedly been made by some users in the chatroom. Should an investigation be launched? And if it is indeed found to be true that a certain user has made such racial slurs, should such a user be warned/suspended? $\endgroup$
    – user5783
    Commented May 2, 2012 at 15:07
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    $\begingroup$ @BenjaminLim A spam/offensive flag on a racial slur will almost certainly be declared valid, which results in the chat message being deleted and the user being suspended from chat for 30 minutes. Depending on what exactly was said, a longer suspension could certainly be warranted. If I encountered such a situation in chat I'd strongly warn the user to stop that behaviour for sure, and possibly even suspend for a longer time than the automatic 30 minutes. $\endgroup$
    – user9733
    Commented May 2, 2012 at 15:51
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    $\begingroup$ @Fabian I was involved in the incident on the receiving side (I was insulted!) and the remark was expunged from the transcript and resulted in 30 minutes suspension for the other user. If you'd want me to tell you what the remark was, we'll have to work out a mode of communication. $\endgroup$
    – user21436
    Commented May 2, 2012 at 16:02
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    $\begingroup$ @KannappanSampath I'd let the math mods handle this one, there seems to be quite a bit of history to the whole thing. Even though chat moderation is global, I think non-urgent issues (the offending messages are removed already) should preferably be handled by the mods of the parent site. $\endgroup$
    – user9733
    Commented May 2, 2012 at 16:08
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    $\begingroup$ Profanities serious? Of course, by no means do we want to encourage negative behavior, but do we really want our moderators spending their time being the 'politically correct' police? $\endgroup$
    – Jonathan Gleason
    Commented May 29, 2012 at 5:08

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